Obama running out of patience as BP misses oil slick deadlines

[grassfed]

President sends top officials to Louisiana and threatens to prosecute executives

Oil continued to pour into the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as BP was forced to admit that it has underestimated the scale of what will very soon become the world's worst oil disaster, and had no real idea how it might eventually be solved.

The Obama administration is "frustrated and angry" that BP has missed "deadline after deadline" to seal the well, said the Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar last night.

Mr Salazar is one of three top officials who are heading back to Louisiana to monitor the spill which began with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig almost five weeks ago, and still has no end in sight. According to BP's latest worst-case scenario, it may not be possible to finally cap the spewing oil well until some time in August.

The others are US Environmental Protection Agency chief, Lisa P Jackson, who was in Louisiana visiting residents who have seen oil affect 50 miles of shoreline, and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano who will lead a Senate delegation to the region today.

more

(snip)
The White House revealed that Justice Department officials are also in the region. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refused to say if they have opened a criminal investigation into the British firm's conduct, but on Saturday, President Obama unveiled a formal inquiry into the spill which could lead to possible prosecutions. "First and foremost, what led to this disaster was a breakdown of responsibility on the part of BP and perhaps others," he said.

[Chulanowa]

1. WHAT?!?! DU was telling me obama was in cahoots and drinking a cup of BP oil every morning!

I'm so disillusioned!

[dkf]

6. Maybe he read our posts.

He certainly read our minds.

[Kookaburra]

2. Don't threaten to prosecute, Obama

Do it. Time's up. They need to be held accountable.

[noamnety]

3. He should get the EPA

to send them a sternly worded memo.

[Skittles]

4. LOL

GET A CLUE OBAMA

[dgibby]

5. And he'll huff and he'll puff,

and he'll ..... what???

If he's serious, he'll send Erin Brockovitch, not that sycophant Salazar.

[Go2Peace]

7. So they are surprised that BP stalled in hopes of being able to keep access to the oil?

Well, hopefully the administration is learning.

[Doctor_J]

8. After 5 weeks he's "losing patience"

and "threatening t prosecute"?

:wtf:

Maybe they should be put on double secret probation.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. The other day I heard he was sending a sternly worded letter

to the Times. That will teach them!

[tomm2thumbs]

10. maybe he is on mood stabilizers, because if it has taken him this long to run out of patience

he isn't paying attention

[florida08]

11. BP refuses to comply with EPA order to not use Corexit

If you read the instructions for Corexit, the dispersant approved by the EPA to make the ocean look better, it warns that it is an eye and skin irritant, is harmful by inhalation, in contact with skin and if swallowed, and may cause injury to red blood cells, kidney or the liver. People are warned not to take Corexit internally, but the fish, turtles, sea birds, copepods and jellies have no choice. They are awash in a lethal brew of oil and butoxyethanol."

Under the guise of "commercial secrets", BP is adamantly refusing to reveal the contents of its response to the EPA. Critics have repeatedly accused BP of trying to keep the public in the dark about the full scale of the disaster, and its role in it.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail?entry_id=64201#ixzz0oqfNbKA6

This alone is reason for criminal prosecution..but let's not put our boot on their neck

[truth2power]

12. Talk, talk, talk. n/t

[salguine]

13. After more than a month he's "losing patience". You know what? Fuck Obama. There, I said it.